Name: Ishtar of the Searing Sands

Race: Sarben

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Place of Origin: The Heartlands

Appearance and Personality:

Ishtar stands about the same height as a human male, and has a body built like a chiseled statue, muscled yet delicate. His stony frame can also take the shape of the very sands he is born from, but it is a secret technique every Sarben guards very closely. On his belt he carries a dagger, and on his back he wears a hip-length cape not to protect from the intense heat of the sun, but to hide his subtler actions of questionable legality. The clothes he wears are made from leather, along with the small bag on his side used for storing stolen trinkets and other items of value. He keeps his face concealed with linen wrappings, with only a thin slit left to reveal his yellow eyes in the darkness, sure to unnerve any non-Sarben. If he were to ever remove these wrappings, one would find that he has no face indeed, but only four circles in a diamond pattern.

Ishtar is a Sarben, and while polite when dealing with the waterborn as he calls them, doesn't conform to the same social norms as they do. He doesn't greet or bid farewell, nor does he use body language or physical contact to convey messages. He tends to be quiet and imposing like the heat of the desert, and tends to receive fear and even scorn from others, in addition to the mystery his race brings. He believes in an ancient Sarben proverb: "The desert takes the lost", and thus has become committed to stealing from the rich merchants and nobles in order to return the lost wealth of his community. If the topic of discussion arrives on his people, he opens up a bit more to talk about the proud history and tradition of the Sarben.

Class: Sand Stalker
Ishtar, in his quest to return his old caravan community to its former wealth and prosperity, has honed his skills of stealth and subterfuge over the years. He can pick the pockets of anyone not detected by his presence, and his dagger delivers deadly critical hits when he strikes unseen. Using the well-kept secret of the Sarben, he can even shift his body into a sand-like form, and with the swiftness of the wind, disappear and appear somewhere else nearby. If he is detected, he can also cause a localized miniature sandstorm around him and his allies, providing them with a makeshift smoke bomb to escape from any conflict unwinnable by the sword or the tongue.

Stats:
STR: 11
END: 12
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHR: 5
AGI: 18
LCK: 12
Background: Ishtar comes from a once prosperous caravan community that travelled outside the Heartlands and to other kingdoms like Teredil, trading in goods and supplies from faraway lands. However, the golden age of the Searing Sands ended when a war broke out in Teredil, and the caravan was sacked by a travelling army. Having lost their wealth, the community broke out and spread to other lands in search of a better future. Ishtar never forgave this deed, and thus set out to take back what he believed was rightfully theirs.

He spent many years travelling from city to city. He started as a street performer, using his stony body to perform petty tricks to collect what little gold he could, before he started picking pockets and eventually moved on to performing big heists, hiding out in the cargoes of ships or sneaking into well-guarded treasuries. Having heard rumors of a big score waiting to be collected by a skilled thief, Ishtar set his next destination to Thanadan.